---
title: A little while after, the father fell ill, and sent for his sons, wh… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A little while after, the father fell ill, and sent for his sons, who were out hunting, to bid him farewell. Who acts: little while, sons. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/19/98/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/19/) / 98

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 19, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A little while after, the father fell ill, and sent for his sons, who were out hunting, to bid him farewell.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little while, sons · **What happens:** fall, send, hunt, bid · **To what, where:** Jack

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little while, sons), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3027:19:98
# text = A little while after, the father fell ill, and sent for his sons, who were out hunting, to bid him farewell.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	after	after	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	bid	bid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	farewell	farewell	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | a little while |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **send** | past | a little while *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Jack's sons | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hunt** | past · progressive | Jack's sons |  |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **bid** | to-infinitive | Jack's sons *not said here* | Jack |  |  |  | farewell *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/19/97/)
- next →: [sentence 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/19/99/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/19/)